Full spoilers follow for this episode.
Oh man, Captain Pike.
Fans of Star Trek: The Original Series have long wondered what the circumstances of Pike’s inevitable accident actually looked like. We’ve known it involved a cadet training session gone awry that resulted in his getting doused in delta radiation, but beyond that the tragic event was left to our imaginations. Not anymore.
And then there’s the return of Tig Notaro’s Jett Reno, who feels the need to set Dr. Culber straight regarding his relationship with Stamets. Getting Reno’s back story about her late wife is a good touch, and Notaro and Wilson Cruz have a fun scene together, but maybe people should just let Culber decide to do what he wants to do, eh?
Questions and Notes from the Q Continuum:
- Boreth was first seen in the TNG episode “Rightful Heir,” and it was also mentioned on Deep Space Nine. Worf likes to hang there.
- Georgiou, who beamed to the safety of the Discovery (offscreen) last episode, is explained in a line of dialogue here to be off searching for Leland now.
- Kenneth Mitchell has become a resident Klingon on this show even when his characters keep getting killed. First he played Kol last year, then Kol-Sha earlier this season, and now the adult son of Tyler and L’Rell.
- We finally get a proper (if slightly redesigned) D7 Klingon battle cruiser here, hinted at early in the season, but the show chooses not to give us a good look at it.
- The Vulcan nerve pinch only works… if the subject has nerves.
- So many dissolves in this episode — planetscape to Tyler’s screen, Dr. Burnham to Michael, Pike entering the monastery, etc.!
- I think this is the first time I noticed the new makeup design where Saru’s threat ganglia used to be. Look for it.
- Why isn’t Spock back on duty and in uniform?
- Is it just Section 31 ships that have a male computer voice?
- “We never even gave him a name.” / “That is a good name.”
The Verdict
Thirty Control ships are approaching. Captain Pike is ready to set the self-destruct. He’s called Number One and the Enterprise for back-up. And we may be heading for a connection to the Short Trek “Calypso,” which was set a thousand years after Disco’s era. Yep, things are heating up on Discovery now, and this episode once again successfully used Trek’s past to prime us for the future.
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